go off, together with other facts and circumstances surrounding the death of the deceased by violent means, was sufficient to support the verdict of guilty of murder.” One of the most interesting parts of the case is that the jury knew only that Furman was black and that, according to his statement at trial, he was 26 years old and worked as an upholsterer. It took the jury one hour and 35 minutes to return a verdict of guilt and a sentence of death. In essence, then, the Furman case as decided by the jury in Georgia was based on racial bias and bigotry. The hot issues of the late sixties were civil rights/liberties topics such as racial equality, gender equality, affirmative action, the death penalty, and abortion. Most court decisions were associated with the powerful political and legal developments in American society. The term “social issues” embodies the deep divisions in American society over such issues as abortion, affirmative action, crime and punishment, drug use, sexual mores, and attitudes toward God and country. Several factors in American society have turned these issues into prominent political concerns that have affected both the role of the Court in American society and the substance of its decisions. An important source of this tension was seen to be associated with profound educational and technological developments in a post-industrial American society. Combined with the massive social movements of the sixties involving poverty, racism, and Vietnam, these educational and technological developments produced a middle-class and upper-middle class intelligentsia with liberal cultural values in sharp contrast to those of a new working class which had gained new wealth but adhered to the more traditional values of American society. These divisions have been a major part of electoral politics since 1968. There was strong support for the death penalty but racism was a topic that the new liberal class was...
